A
Almond_Dandy
Guest
Hello pilots, I'm looking for some advice / insight on my specific situation. Any help would be much appreciated by me, and hopefully my post can help others as well.
Within the last three years I had one short visit to a psychiatric office (not a hospital). This was triggered by me essentially asking my physician for a referral, which I did because my mother and my spouse were worried because I was unemployed (I have substantial savings and was not interested in employment at the time), fighting constantly with my spouse, and smoked weed for recreation (not illegal in my state, although I understand this matters none to the FAA).
So, I told my physician I would like to talk to someone for the reasons above. My physician essentially told me "I'm not a psych(ologist / iatrist) so don't take this too seriously, but maybe you have xyz mental issue" (don't remember exactly what they said, but I don't think it matters because they're not that kind of doctor, and also said not to take it seriously). They also told me to stop recreational weed use, so I did. I think a simple visit to a therapist or two would have absolutely sufficed considering I have zero history of mental issues, but I went where my doctor referred me to, which was a psychiatric office. At the time I wasn't exactly aware of a difference.
My visit was very short. I filled out a questionnaire on paper, but don't remember what I said. I probably mentioned smoking pot and fighting with my spouse. I had a 20 or so minute talk with a person, where she mostly just asked "why are you here" to which I mostly just talked about the fights that led to my spouse asking me to come here (no physical violence, not verbal abuse, just intense stress). It was all very preliminary, with only a few questions like (do you ever see things that aren't there, hear things, etc). She did not prescribe me anything, did not mention any potential prescriptions, did not diagnose me with anything or even mention a potential diagnosis. She recommended me to return for a longer evaluation as she seemed short on time, but due to the holidays, their nearest appointment was three weeks out. In those three weeks I had a nice Christmas and New Years spent with my spouse and immediate family. I also talked to my psychologist relative, who taught me the difference between therapy, psychiatry, psychology, etc. Ultimately, I decided that the stress, stopping recreational weed use, combined with the improvement in my relationships, simply was not reason enough for me to return for more sessions. After this, I called my parents more often and got better at talking to them, talked to my spouse more reasonably to solve our issues, and cut weed and weed-smoking friends out of my life. Case closed, right?
Well, now I want to get my private pilot license. I lean heavily towards blunt honesty, so I'm not taking any shortcuts. For a class III medical, I'm past the two-year illicit drug use deadline, but not the three-year doctor visits deadline. I'm afraid that if this psychiatric visit is mentioned, I will be given heavy scrutiny that may be overblown, just like how I felt the visit itself was a bit overblown. Should I just wait for the three year deadline or is that insincere? Even if the three year deadline passes, I'm also worried about my physician mentioning "xyz mental issue", and whether they or the psych put something in my medical records that would come up later that I'm not aware of. Example: my physician spit-balled that mental issue, so did they also spit-ball drug issues because of recreational weed use? Will the FAA see that I used weed for recreation and jump straight to "drug dependency"? I did not mention why my spouse, family, and myself were having issues (family never approved of the relationship, spousal relationship events that would naturally cause stress for me, married at 19, unemployed because I had substantial savings and was interested in starting a business, etc). Again, no shortcuts, but if I can legally, ethically, morally avoid talking about this embarrassing (for me) part of my life, I would very much like to.
Within the last three years I had one short visit to a psychiatric office (not a hospital). This was triggered by me essentially asking my physician for a referral, which I did because my mother and my spouse were worried because I was unemployed (I have substantial savings and was not interested in employment at the time), fighting constantly with my spouse, and smoked weed for recreation (not illegal in my state, although I understand this matters none to the FAA).
So, I told my physician I would like to talk to someone for the reasons above. My physician essentially told me "I'm not a psych(ologist / iatrist) so don't take this too seriously, but maybe you have xyz mental issue" (don't remember exactly what they said, but I don't think it matters because they're not that kind of doctor, and also said not to take it seriously). They also told me to stop recreational weed use, so I did. I think a simple visit to a therapist or two would have absolutely sufficed considering I have zero history of mental issues, but I went where my doctor referred me to, which was a psychiatric office. At the time I wasn't exactly aware of a difference.
My visit was very short. I filled out a questionnaire on paper, but don't remember what I said. I probably mentioned smoking pot and fighting with my spouse. I had a 20 or so minute talk with a person, where she mostly just asked "why are you here" to which I mostly just talked about the fights that led to my spouse asking me to come here (no physical violence, not verbal abuse, just intense stress). It was all very preliminary, with only a few questions like (do you ever see things that aren't there, hear things, etc). She did not prescribe me anything, did not mention any potential prescriptions, did not diagnose me with anything or even mention a potential diagnosis. She recommended me to return for a longer evaluation as she seemed short on time, but due to the holidays, their nearest appointment was three weeks out. In those three weeks I had a nice Christmas and New Years spent with my spouse and immediate family. I also talked to my psychologist relative, who taught me the difference between therapy, psychiatry, psychology, etc. Ultimately, I decided that the stress, stopping recreational weed use, combined with the improvement in my relationships, simply was not reason enough for me to return for more sessions. After this, I called my parents more often and got better at talking to them, talked to my spouse more reasonably to solve our issues, and cut weed and weed-smoking friends out of my life. Case closed, right?
Well, now I want to get my private pilot license. I lean heavily towards blunt honesty, so I'm not taking any shortcuts. For a class III medical, I'm past the two-year illicit drug use deadline, but not the three-year doctor visits deadline. I'm afraid that if this psychiatric visit is mentioned, I will be given heavy scrutiny that may be overblown, just like how I felt the visit itself was a bit overblown. Should I just wait for the three year deadline or is that insincere? Even if the three year deadline passes, I'm also worried about my physician mentioning "xyz mental issue", and whether they or the psych put something in my medical records that would come up later that I'm not aware of. Example: my physician spit-balled that mental issue, so did they also spit-ball drug issues because of recreational weed use? Will the FAA see that I used weed for recreation and jump straight to "drug dependency"? I did not mention why my spouse, family, and myself were having issues (family never approved of the relationship, spousal relationship events that would naturally cause stress for me, married at 19, unemployed because I had substantial savings and was interested in starting a business, etc). Again, no shortcuts, but if I can legally, ethically, morally avoid talking about this embarrassing (for me) part of my life, I would very much like to.
